Diana's Story

Diana wasborn prematurely at only 5 months gestation. She weighed only 2 lbs. at birth! She spent her first 2 ½ months of life in an incubator. During that two month period, her parents saw many other babies die in their incubators, but Diana kept fighting and developed her lungs. It is truly a miracle that Diana survived such a premature birth in a public Third World hospital!

Doctors warned Diana’s parents that she might have physical impairments due to her premature birth, such as blindness, deafness, or underdevelopment of her spine. Diana was unable to see at birth, but by 3 months of age, her vision had developed and she was able to see.

At the end of her first year, Diana was still not responding to sound. Diana’s mother took her to a pediatrician, who told her that everything was normal. In January of this year, an uncle came to visit. The uncle was a physician. He convinced Diana’s parents that everything was not normal. They went to a different pediatrician, who referred them to a specialist. A hearing test showed that Diana was completely deaf. They were told that hearing was an impossibility for Diana unless she had a cochlear implant.